$35.5 million does the trick

WITH an opening bid of $25 million, the auction of Springsure blue-label property, Cungelella, was not the place for small-timers.

Few of the 200 people who turned up for the auction at the Country Comfort Motel in Rockhampton were willing to bid.

"When you get to that amount, it sorts the men from the boys,'' Ray White Rural principal Lex Heinemann said. The price slowly climbed over the next 10 minutes before the auctioneer finally brought down his hammer on a bid of $35.5 million from the North Australian Pastoral Company.

Mr Heinemann said the sale had set an Australian record of $267 a hectare $660 an acre).

"I would say it was an Australian record for quantity of price.''

The 21,285 hectare (53,830 acre) property is 147km southwest of Springsure and has an annual rainfall of about 650 milimetres.

"It has established bull grass, good consistent rainfall, not a thing to spend on it ... you can move into it with confidence,'' he said.

The property has been in the hands of Allen and Carolynn Nobbs for the past 20 years and their son Brett said the family were a little sad to let it go.

"We've put a lot of work into that property and it's been very good to us, so there has been a little emotional attachment to it,'' he said.

Mr Nobbs said the family sold the property to focus on their property around Rockhampton, which includes the flagship Fitzroyvale property.